Speaking a second language however, it happens every single day - especially when it comes to grammar and sentence structure. For example, my self-proving attempt to say "I undertsand Spanish better than I write it" which was "Yo entiendo español mejor que me escribo". It turns out it should be "Yo entiendo español mejor que lo que escribo" (direct translation is "I understand Spanish better than it that I write") which I just couldn't work out how to get it.... I am sure there is a rule around it, and I understand the idea of using "que" as a comparison word - but using it twice in the one sentence is really difficult for me to understand.
What it did do though was make me think about things which have confused me, or do confuse me.
- How the flag on the moon blew in the moon landing video. I'm not one of those conspiracy freaks, and I think it was genuine... I just am puzzled by it.
- How something can be New & Improved... surely if it is improved, it isn't new and vice versa!? If it is new, it hasn't been improved upon yet?
- How a fat chance and a slim chance are the same thing?
- Why do our noses run, yet our feet smell?
- The difference between Bueno and Bien. I have decided it is similar to the difference between nice and well. However, thinking about it "good" is an equally difficult word to understand in English.. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother from 1km away, I would say he is a good shot.... just not a good person
- Why the QWERTY keyboard was designed the way it was. Look I understand the history that the keyboard with the letters in an alphabetical order resulted in extremely rapid typing on type writers, and combined with common letters (e & d, t and s etc) being close together resulted in lots of jammings of typewriters, What I don't understand is why the letters "d" and "f", along with "r" and "t" have to be so close to each other. I will never again write in an email "I am just ducking off somewhere" of "Regards, Tristan"
- 99% fat free. What is 99% fat free, how big is the original amount?? I sincerely hope that 1L of milk is has less than 1% fat. 1% of 1L of milk is about 10g of fat...
- Who decided to drink milk? Did they try a bull as well??
- Why are women crazy about Russell Brand?
- Why companies insist of using voice recognition, and if you fail to speak in the way it expects... for example Spanish with an Aussie accent, it hangs up on you.
- Why do you use artificial flavouring in Lemon Juice, yet real lemons in detergent?
- If firefighters fight fire, whats the go with freedom fighters?
- The concept of "assassination", at what point does the person become too important to have been murdered?
- Best before dates and Used by dates... whats the difference, how long after best before can I keep it before it becomes poisonous!?
- Predictive text... particularly on the Iphone... at what point did somebody decide that automatically correcting words without asking was what we wanted. On a slight aside, I'd be interested to know if Aunt is the most used word texted using 2868.
- Why does the MCG has a smaller capacity than 20 years ago after all the developments??
- Why, given that break is square - is all sandwich meat round?
- If I get asked a "Penny for my thoughts" and I "Give my two cents worth", where does the other penny go?
- How come man walked on the moon before we got wheels on luggage?
- Why, in all fridges is there a light.... but never one in the freezer???
- Why do doctors call what they do "practice"?
- Why do people stick pistols down the front of the jeans? If I was to get shot, heaven forbid, outside of a fatal wounding I know where I would want to get shot least.
- Why is the sporting team that polarises opinion the most, almost always the team that wears Black and White?
- At what point did we decide to drink coffee that had been digested by animals?
- Given the idea that bright colours generally mean danger in nature, how did we end up with a garden salad with lettuce, cucumber, cucumber (red, yellow and green), carrots and tomato?
